You don't have the luxury of ignoring meetings and email, putting on headphones, and working uninterrupted as long as you want—even though those are the times you really get things done. Distractions are real, they're part of our workday, and they're not going away. So how do you stay productive when you're expected to be on top of your inbox, or keep IM open while you work?

The Problem: Distractions Are Part Of Your Job

At my last job, I didn't have the luxury of checking my email only when I wanted to. People would ask me as soon as I walked in if I got their email from the night before, and if I didn't respond to an email or IM within a few minutes—especially if it was urgent—I could expect someone standing at my desk asking about it. I'm willing to bet that your job is similar: you probably can't just tell your boss "Sorry, I only check my email twice a day."

A slowly filling inbox, distracting instant messages, meetings scheduled when you're trying to work—they're all facts of life for most of us, and while we often discuss how you can eliminate distractions, for many of us those distractions are our work. All is not lost, though! You can bring those interruptions under control so you can focus and get work done without being frustrated every time someone IMs you, or without jumping into your email every time a new message comes in. In this post, we're going to discuss how. Photo by TJ.

So how do you take control when you're expected to be on top of your inbox and available via IM all day? Here's the short version: You need to start working on your own terms, but learn to walk the line between what you can get away with and what your coworkers—and more importantly, your boss—won't allow. Don't tell your boss that you "only check your email at 10am, 2pm, and 4pm," just set your mail client to check for new messages every 90 minutes instead of every five and see how it works. Get called out for missing an email? Bring it back to 60 minutes. See where we're going? Let's dive in.

Tame Your Distracting Inbox, Instant Messages, and Phone by Putting Them on Autopilot

Your email, corporate IM, and your phone are all probably the biggest sources of distraction at your job, and yet they're the things you're always expected to respond to when they start ringing and beeping. That doesn't mean you have to be a slave to it though. Here's what we mean:

Put Your Email on Autopilot: Before you can comfortably stop checking your email every few minutes, you'll want to make sure you don't miss anything important.

Use Tools that Automatically Keep Your Inbox Clean. For example: Unroll.me automatically collects newsletters and subscriptions, rolls them up into a single daily newsletter, and then lets you choose which of them hit your inbox. Boomerang is one of our favorite tools for scheduling and delaying messages until you need to see them, and more. It works in Outlook too, so if your office doesn't use Gmail or Google accounts, you can still reap its inbox-cleaning benefits.

Get a System. Special tools aren't a panacea. The most powerful inbox cleaning tool is you. Stop using your inbox like a filing cabinet and get those to-dos into something that you'll actually use, even if it's pen and paper, and file your messages away so your inbox takes less time and energy to look at. We're fans of the trusted trio of folders: It works like a charm to keep your inbox empty, even if you're mostly just moving things around.

Pull Back How Frequently You Check Your Mail: Like I mentioned, in my last job, catching an important message versus missing it would often be the difference between being ahead of the game or hopelessly behind. If you can't check your email every few hours, try setting it to check every hour instead. If that doesn't work for you, set it to every half-hour. Find a balance that works for you—turning off auto-notify doesn't mean you have to give up your "fastest reply in the office" title—trust me, I was that guy for years.

The point isn't to stop getting your email, just to stop jumping like a trained dog every time a new message lands, and to choose the smallest amount of time you know you can go between checks. That way you know how long you can work in peace in between new messages. Distractions cease to be distractions when they're scheduled, planned for, and on your terms. You can still have the convenience of near-real-time email without hearing a "ding!" every 30 seconds.

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Train Your Coworkers to Understand and Respect Away Messages: Back in the day, your away message was the most informative way you could tell your friends where you were or what you were doing. Even if you don't use IM socially, bring those principles into the office. Instead of just labeling yourself "Away," pick "Custom" and let your coworkers know "Head down working—will respond to IM's in 30 minutes. Call if it's urgent." or "Out to lunch, will be back in at 2pm." Use your IM status as a proactive communications tool—it may not stop your coworkers from messaging you, but over time, between your auto-responses and reinforcing the point by talking to them, they'll understand that your status message is for their benefit.

Make Your Phone Less Distracting by Keeping It Quiet but In Sight: You have surprisingly little control over your desk phone—after all, when someone calls you they're essentially saying "I want your attention right this second," so unplugging it is a bad idea. One trick I've used was to move the phone so the flashing call indicator and the caller ID were in view from my field of vision while working on my computer, and then turn the ringer off. That way I was never startled or jarred by a blaring phone, and when the red light started flashing, I could glance at it without taking my fingers off the keyboard and decide whether to answer it. Even if I didn't answer it but wanted to call the person back, I'd make a note in an open text file on my desktop to give them a ring back and return to the task at hand.

The same applies to your smartphone. If you can, keep it docked somewhere you can see it, and prune those notifications so it's not a distraction either. I like to keep the sound off while I work, but if you need audible cues, try our set of soothing alerts for more gentle notification sounds.

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Add Order to Your Calendar by Scheduling Everything

You don't have to get down to the level of programming your entire day, but when we say "schedule everything," we mean schedule your working time, your lunch, your breaks, everything that you want to use your time for. The only actual "free" time on your calendar should be time when you're actually available for phone calls and meetings—time that's not allocated to something specific. Even then, as soon as it is, you should schedule it.

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When I was a project manager, I had meetings every single day. Even worse, I was responsible for scheduling most of them. I learned pretty quickly that the only time I could truly tell people I was "unavailable" were the times that were blocked off on my calendar (and even then, they'd ignore it, but that's another problem entirely.) So I started scheduling my work—or times when I was head-down and wanted everyone to know I was busy. Then I started specifically scheduling my breaks so people would know when I wasn't around and when I'd be back. Sometimes those appointments would be private (but still blocked off on the calendar) but they got the message across. Be flexible though—sometimes you'll have to let someone make inroads to your work time if it's the only time everyone else can make a meeting. When you're ready to take it to the next step, consider pre-scheduling entire days as "in" or "out" based on what needs to get done that day.

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Finally, let your calendar work for you instead of against you. Boomerang Calendar is a great tool that'll auto-fill your appointments with locations, attendees, and times based on your email, and lets you see—from your inbox—whether you're free at a specific time. No more toggling between your calendar and your inbox to check your schedule.

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Take Care Of Yourself, Control Your Environment, and Teach Your Coworkers Manners

For many of us, our office environment is the thing we have the least control over. What you do have control over however, is your own mood, your health, and your own behavior at the office. Here's how to tackle the physical:

Take Care Of Yourself: Remember, you only have one you, but to your company, you're a resource. You may be valued, but if you fell over tomorrow, they'd find someone to pick up your work. Take your health seriously. Get enough sleep, get some exercise, and eat well. When you're in good mental and physical condition, you'll handle distractions better, you'll be more flexible and willing to switch tasks, and you'll be more productive. Don't underestimate the mental benefits of a good night's sleep, and the mood benefits of exercise.

Upgrade Your Desk or Cubicle: Even if you don't have an office with a door you can close to block out distractions, you can still tweak your desk to make them easier to handle. Face the entrance to your workspace, if you can, or at least work sidelong to it so you can see people coming. Invest in a monitor mirror or set up your phone or tablet with the camera on so you can see who's coming up behind you. Add some plants, if for no other reason than to improve your mood.

Train Your Coworkers: Remember, we're all adults here. If someone is a horrible distraction, as in they take frequent breaks and those breaks happen to be at your desk while you're trying to work, just be polite and tell them, or use it as an excuse to take your own break. If your coworkers bother you when you're busy, let them know. Don't shut them down—you don't want to hold your productivity method over someone else's head (that's the fastest way to dead-end your career.) Instead, be flexible and let your coworkers know that you're giving them tools to better work with you—they just need to look at them.

Make Time to Review: Finally, being always available and always on when you're at the office (or worse, when you're not) can make it really hard to step back and see the big picture. Make sure to carve out at least some time to get back in touch with what you're doing and why, as opposed to just taking busywork as it comes. I find the Weekly Review is a great way to do this, but however you do it, it's essential to keep your head above water and sift the distractions from the important work.

The Bottom Line: Remix Your Own Style, and Make Moderate, Incremental Changes

The biggest takeaway here is that all of these productivity methods are great, and while it's easy to get caught up in all things productivity, the only method that's going to work for you is the one that you'll actually follow, and that fits into the way your job requires you to work. Photo by mlpeixoto.

Don't be afraid to remix any or all of these methods to make your own franken-system that lets the important stuff through while giving you room to focus on your job. Test it, try it out, and if you push too hard one way, lighten up. Be flexible, and you'll find yourself less annoyed at every meeting request or instant message you get.